With the Marshwood High School football team facing third and long from its 1-yard line in a game against Massabesic, coach Guy Lajeunesse called for a three-step fade.

"Let's go for it," he'd often say. "Let's take a shot."

The result was a 99-yard touchdown pass. True to his nature, he was aggressive to the end.

That's the way he coached football, and that's the way he approached life. Lajeunesse was diagnosed with brain cancer less than a year ago and died last week at age 51.

"It was difficult," said colleague and close friend Scott Patch. "He went through radiation and surgery in the summer. His philosophy was always that he wanted to be treated as aggressively as possible and that's the way he went after it. He fought a great fight. I was with him the day before he passed and he was still battling."

Lajeunesse never backed down from a challenge. Many credit him with saving the Traip Academy football program in his first head-coaching job when he wasn't much older than some of his players.

After two years as an assistant at Massabesic, he came to Traip with little experience but within three years turned the team into a consistent winner and playoff contender.

"He came in with a lot of fire," said Marshwood athletic director and former Traip athlete Rich Buzzell. "He didn't accept excuses."

Buzzell played three years for Lajeunesse, who was only 23 when he started the rebuilding project in Kittery by converting the conservative wing-T offense into the spread option to take advantage of the Rangers' personnel at the time.

"Guy was very demanding, very organized and very positive," Buzzell said. "He was the epitome of what you wanted in a coach. He pushed you to your limits. His expectations were as high as they could be."

After nine years at Traip, Lajeunesse felt it was time to move on and he became the coach at Marshwood when the legendary Rod Wotton stepped down with an unenviable task ahead of him.

"He was in a tough position," said longtime Marshwood boys basketball coach Mike Zamarchi. "It was almost a no-win situation, but he did an unbelievable job. He was ready for the move. I think he handled it the right way."

"If anybody could have followed Rod Wotton — and not many people could — it would have been Guy," Buzzell said. "Guy was one of the hardest workers. He was not going to be outworked by anybody. I think that's how he lived. He always had a positive attitude even when he was fighting the cancer. He always had a smile on his face and never once said, 'why me?'"

Patch graduated from Traip the year before Lajeunesse arrived in 1884. The two eventually hooked up at Marshwood and shared the same office for 17 years.

"He set the bar high for coaches," Patch said. "He's going to be missed. I miss him already. It's going to be a challenge for a lot of people to move on."

Despite the illness, Lajeunesse tried to teach and coach as long as he could.

"It's a tremendous loss, personally and professionally," Buzzell said. "It still hasn't sunk in. I still feel like he's going to walk through that door.

"There are very few people in this world that leave footprints in your life," Buzzell added, "and Guy Lajeunesse was one of those people for me."

"He was a loyal guy and a good friend," Zamarchi said. "I'd go over to his house and he was always upbeat, positive. He never complained. He was always positive about what the next treatment was."

Lajeunesse was the head coach at Marshwood from 1993 to 2000. He subsequently had a short stint as an assistant at Noble and most recently was the defensive coordinator at Marshwood where he taught physical education.

Preparation and organization were among his coaching attributes.

"I learned a lot for basketball and how he prepared," Zamarchi said. "His file cabinets were stacked full of scouting reports on teams. Kids loved playing for him."

"He was dedicated," Zamarchi said. "He didn't cut any corners."

"Guy was always coaching," Patch said. "He was always preparing."

Although he was more known for coaching football, the Biddeford, Maine, native's contributions extended beyond the gridiron. Lajeunesse also officiated basketball and umpired baseball, both at the high-school level.

Those two organizations, along with Patch and the community at large, helped raise upward of $11,000 to send Lajeunesse and his family to the Frozen Four last month in Tampa, Fla.

While down there, Boston College coach Jerry York contacted the family and Maine coach Tim Whitehead invited Lajeunesse to the Hobey Baker Award ceremony where Black Bear star Spencer Abbott was a finalist.

"(Whitehead) spent at least 20 minutes with both of us like we were the only two people in the room," Patch said. "That was really the highlight of the trip."

Lajeunesse also received autographed jerseys from the Maine and University of New Hampshire hockey teams.

He earned his master's degree from UNH, and his love of hockey only grew as sons Kyle and Peter became accomplished players in the sport.

"From a community standpoint, he was a second father to a lot of the kids," Buzzell said. "The impact he had on people's lives will be felt for a long time. We're going to honor his memory."

Lajeunesse led by example when times were toughest, exhibiting extraordinary bravery under dire circumstances.

"Guy is one of the strongest people I've ever been associated with," Buzzell said. "He attacked everything with everything had had. He couldn't sit back. I remember one time last summer after he had surgery to remove the tumor and I asked him if he was afraid, and he said, 'I'm not afraid. God has a dart board sometimes, but I'm going after this as hard as I can.'"

"He tried the best he could to beat this thing," Patch said. "It just couldn't be done."

Al Pike is a staff sports writer for Foster's Daily Democrat. He can be reached at apike@fosters.com.